LitHub Daily: June 17, 2015

The Best of the Literary Internet, Every Day

TODAY: In 1958, Chinua Achebe’sThings Fall Apartis published by William Heinemann, first print run: 2,000.

Laura Dave on the joy of “…18 grueling months, 97,000 words, and 500 pages of research—all of which I would eventually toss into a recycling bin in northern California, off Highway 12.” | Literary Hub

Amazon, publishing’s most aggressive frenemy, is now paying e-book royalties based on the number of pages read, allegedly “in response to great feedback” from authors who asked for this. | Kindle Direct Publishing

Joshua Cohen may have finally written the long-awaited “novel for the Facebook age,” in which the excellence of his writing may excuse his comparing breasts to young fawns. | Bookforum

Born from the union of a computer and a typewriter: on the captivating fiction of Alejandro Zambra. | The New Yorker

The newly-crowned king of the controversial reading list has compiled one about “passing across racial boundaries.” | The New York Times

It’s pronounced Na-BOW-kov, and other shocking discoveries: an interview with Nabokov’s most recent biographer. | Biographile